Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Warner Music Group Corp. (NASDAQ:WMG) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the sixteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $35.31.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Barclays dropped their price target on Warner Music Group from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Macquarie reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Warner Music Group in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Warner Music Group from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th.

Insider Activity at Warner Music Group

In other Warner Music Group news, Director Lincoln E. Benet sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.96, for a total value of $1,083,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 242,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,503,465.60. This trade represents a 12.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 72.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,699.4% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 8,217,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $257,207,000 after acquiring an additional 7,923,926 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 91.5% during the third quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 5,264,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,779,000 after acquiring an additional 2,514,715 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 37.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,754,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $274,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,370,973 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Warner Music Group during the third quarter worth about $15,766,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Warner Music Group by 2,198.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 507,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,886,000 after acquiring an additional 485,447 shares during the last quarter. 96.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Warner Music Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ WMG opened at $32.35 on Wednesday. Warner Music Group has a 1-year low of $27.06 and a 1-year high of $38.05. The company has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.98, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $31.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.95, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Warner Music Group (NASDAQ:WMG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. Warner Music Group had a return on equity of 69.29% and a net margin of 6.77%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Warner Music Group will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Warner Music Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 19th. Warner Music Group’s payout ratio is currently 86.75%.

Warner Music Group Company Profile

Warner Music Group Corp. operates as a music entertainment company in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It operates through Recorded Music and Music Publishing segments. The Recorded Music segment is involved in the discovery and development of recording artists, as well as related marketing, promotion, distribution, sale, and licensing of music created by such recording artists; markets its music catalog through compilations and reissuances of previously released music and video titles, as well as previously unreleased materials; and conducts its operation primarily through a collection of record labels, such as Warner Records and Atlantic Records, as well as Asylum, Big Beat, Canvasback, East West, Erato, FFRR, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Reprise, Roadrunner, Sire, Spinnin’ Records, Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville.